Pablo Larraín returns with a stirring and unconventional biopic that delves into the tumultuous life of Maria Callas, one of opera’s most iconic figures. Known for his introspective storytelling, Larraín offers an intimate look at the singer’s artistry, vulnerability and the immense pressures she faced.

Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas, capturing both her fierce passion on stage and her complex personal struggles off it. As Callas battles between her demanding career and longing for personal happiness, Larraín’s narrative unfolds with sensitivity, exploring her relationships, insecurities and the sacrifices she made for her art. The film juxtaposes grand, beautifully staged opera scenes with quieter moments that reveal Callas’s inner turmoil, creating a portrait that is as powerful as it is poignant. With Larraín’s nuanced direction and Jolie’s evocative performance, ‘Maria’ is both a tribute to a legendary voice and a study of artistic endurance.

USA/Chile 2024 Pablo Larraín 115m

When a Cardinal is tasked with leading one of the world's most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, he finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of The Church.

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church. This is a skilfully crafted film with stunning cinematography and a beautiful score that takes many surprising turns, culminating in a climactic reveal that will leave audiences astonished. The A-list cast also includes Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

UK/USA 2024 Edward Berger 120m

A Hundred Years of Dracula at the Movies 

With Robert Eggers’ new take on ’Nosferatu’ reaching the big screen this month, this talk will look right back to its cinematic beginnings in the silent era.

What accounts for the enduring popularity of Dracula? Is he truly a reflection of our darkest selves, a Freudian mirror by which to peek inside the soul and recoil at what we see?  The last 100 years have seen some of cinema’s greatest directors tackle the peculiar horror of this most famous of vampire stories. With Eggers’ reboot screening this month, Nick Johnston-Jones and John Harte of the Cinema Education Team explore the genesis of this 1922 masterpiece of German Expressionism, reaching back into the origins of the vampire legend and the cinematic legacy of Bram Stoker’s creation. Bring your garlic, sharpen your stakes, and prepare for 90 minutes in the company of everyone’s favourite Count!

100m inc Q&A

Tickets £7.50

Sat 18 Jan 10:30 - In the Auditorium

Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli

Visconti's masterpiece, an epic melodrama of social migration and moral decay, is now beautifully restored and better than ever!

Rosaria Parondi (Katina Paxinou), an impoverished Italian mother, moves to Milan with her close-knit family of five sons to find opportunity in the big city. A heated rivalry begins when two of Rosaria's boys - Rocco (Alain Delon) and Simone (Renato Salvatori) - fall for Nadia (Annie Girardot), a beautiful sex worker with whom each has an affair. As soft-spoken Rocco and brutal Simone both pursue Nadia in their own way, tension between them threatens to tear the family apart. Visconti has made a film with a sheer passion that makes most current filmmaking look feeble. It is a richly textured and profoundly affecting drama, resoundingly alive with characters, and a leader in post-WWII Italian cinema.

Italy 1960 Luchino Visconti 179m + short interval

Royal Opera & Ballet

Four women: four curious love stories. Juan Diego Flórez leads a fantastic cast in Offenbach's dream-like opera. This fantastic new production from the ROB will make for an interesting comparison with the recent Met production shown in September.

Sun 19 Jan 14:00

This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.

For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation. He began filming the at the age of 15 in the name of evidence. That evidence put forth by the directors – Adra, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, Palestinian filmmaker and farmer Hamdan Ballal and Israeli cinematographer and editor Rachel Szor – is straightforward, un-sensationalized and completely infuriating. For its many images of despair, the film still offers a stirring vision for what could be – Israelis and Palestinians working together in the name of justice, collaborating toward a world where both are free. ‘No Other Land’ won best documentary at the 2024 Berlin film festival and is essential viewing. (Subtitles)

Palestine/Norway 2024 B. Adra, H. Ballal, Y. Abraham, R. Szor 92m

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, we bring back one of the best and most moving films of 2023, which sees Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn play a real 20th Century hero – Nicholas Winton.

Winton was a well-to-do stockbroker who, at the start of WWII, is so horrified by unfolding events that he heads off to Prague to do anything he can to help the terrified young refugees fleeing Hitler. Everyone thinks he is crazy – including his mother, played by Helena Bonham-Carter. But he somehow manages to organise visas and trains to get hundreds of them to safety in the UK; what has since become known as the Kindertransport. Winton was sometimes called the British Oskar Schindler, and the parallels go beyond their acts of extreme kindness: both men were completely consumed by the task they undertook and never able to focus on the people that they did save, only those that they failed to save.

UK 2023 James Hawes 110m